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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26919385">Ecclesiastes 9:5</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/UltimateFandomTrash/pseuds/Lif61'>Lif61 (UltimateFandomTrash)</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020 [9]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Supernatural</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>"Take me instead", Angst, Blood and Injury, Day 9, God's ruling this now, Jack Kline's Death (Mentioned), M/M, Meta, Whump, Whumptober 2020, for the greater good, there's no way this isn't meta</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-10-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-10-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 02:08:15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,345</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26919385</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/UltimateFandomTrash/pseuds/Lif61</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It's The End, and Castiel tries to make a bargain with God to save what remains of his family.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Castiel &amp; Sam Winchester, Castiel/Dean Winchester</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020 [9]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1947223</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Whumptober 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Ecclesiastes 9:5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Whumptober 2020</p>
<p>No 9. FOR THE GREATER GOOD</p>
<p>"Take Me Instead"</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>For the living know that they shall die,</em>
  <br/>
  <em>But the dead know nothing at all:</em>
  <br/>
  <em>Neither have them anymore a reward:</em>
  <br/>
  <em>For their remembrance is forgotten</em>
</p>
<p> </p>
<p>It was over — their lives, their hurt, their fight. Over. Time to say goodbye, to close the book forever.</p>
<p>But no, no. Castiel couldn’t accept that. He wouldn’t.</p>
<p>They faced the end, in Stull Cemetery, where that fateful day the Winchesters had averted the Apocalypse had taken place a decade ago. It was all going to end here. With God.</p>
<p>Sam, Dean, and Castiel had all been subdued, their blood watering the grass.</p>
<p>Sam and Dean were grunting, groaning, trying to get up. It was no use.</p>
<p>“Sammy!” Dean cried. “Cas!”</p>
<p>Fire burned around them. The last bit of sun slowly slipped below the horizon, leaving them.</p>
<p>They had just seen their last sunset. And maybe it was the world’s last sunset too.</p>
<p>God was done.</p>
<p>And Castiel realized he wasn’t. No, as long as his family was alive, he would never be done. Though Jack was dead, and Castiel was exhausted from the grief and the fight, and still blinded by tears, Sam and Dean remained. His best friends, his lover.</p>
<p>Cas knew what he had to do. And he had to do it quickly.</p>
<p>God was approaching Sam and Dean, who lay opposite Castiel. Their injuries were gushing blood prolifically.</p>
<p>Castiel struggled, voice coming out in a cry through gritted teeth.</p>
<p>He had to save them! If managing to save them was his one, last act, then he’d be okay with that.</p>
<p>They had to know how much he loved them. And he couldn’t fail them, not like he’d failed their son.</p>
<p>Even with his heart ripped to pieces, Castiel still tried.</p>
<p>And he screamed and cried at his defeat when it came upon him.</p>
<p>God walked around Sam and Dean, hands clasped behind his back.</p>
<p>“Which one of you to do in first…” he mused. “Castiel, any preferences?” Castiel shuddered, face scrunched up with hate. “Hmm…” God looked down at them. “Sam’s your best friend, and I know you learned to love him through all the shit I put him through with the demon blood. You two would do anything for each other. But Dean — oh, Dean was my best work. Damning him in Hell, making a stick-up-his-ass angel go and rescue him. Making them <em>work</em> together to stop Lucifer — which, obviously was never supposed to work. I wrote you to the greatest extent of my ability. I made you betray Dean! I brainwashed you, and made you kill him over and over again. I made him angry that you worked with Crowley. I made <em>you</em> leave! Over and over and… well, you get the picture. And then I brought you back. I <em>made you what you are</em>.”</p>
<p>“No, you didn’t,” Castiel said. He was able to speak since he was less hurt than his friends. “You never did. You might have made us, but I would have loved Dean either way. And he would have loved me too. You think this is your universe? You created it — it, and this story — but now we live without you. You think this thing you created between me and Dean is yours? It’s <em>ours</em>. You made us, gave us emotions, and I don’t give a damn that you orchestrated everything. Dean and I — we’re <em>still. Real.</em></p>
<p>“Always.”</p>
<p>“So Dean first then.”</p>
<p>Castiel knew what he had to do.</p>
<p>“No! No!” he yelled. “Please, you can’t.”</p>
<p>God laughed, turning to him, arms out.</p>
<p>“Look around, buddy. I can do whatever I want! You don’t control me. I <em>made</em> you! You think I care? I could kill you without even blinking.”</p>
<p>“You do care,” Castiel challenged. “Every writer cares. You really want to kill off your favorite characters? You want it all to end in tears?”</p>
<p>“Sometimes death is what needs to happen,” God argued. “That loss can make you understand other loss.”</p>
<p>“And what would be your loss? You’ve destroyed everything else anyway. It didn’t matter to you. But I think we do.”</p>
<p>“Go tell it to someone who cares. Oh wait, the only people you’ve ever cared about are dead! Save for these two lumbering idiots. Now <em>stay quiet</em>!”</p>
<p>God turned from him, hands up, ready to bring down decimation and destruction. Death.</p>
<p>Castiel couldn’t see his family through his tears.</p>
<p>“Take me!” he pleaded, voice cracking, weaker than he wanted it to sound. Gasping around a sob, he breathed out, “Take me instead.”</p>
<p>God laughed again, seeming ready to jump around and clap his hands. He leaned back, and he looked incredibly blissful, to the extent of it being awkward to witness.</p>
<p>“‘Take me instead’? <em>Oh</em>, that’s too good. <em>Oh, mm</em>, Cas. That’s brilliant! Here we are, I killed your son, I’m burning the very ground, Sam and Dean are about to <em>die</em>, and you bargain with me, to give yourself for them. Wow, Cas, I’m touched. I’m astounded. I am in <em>love</em> with this story. And the best part? I’m not even writing this part. I’m going off the seat of my pants, seeing what happens, what you boys end up doing. Do I know the ending?” He shrugged. “I know what I want, but how we get there is up to you.”</p>
<p>He walked over to Castiel, and Sam and Dean were screaming now, <em>NO!</em> endlessly leaving them. Crouching down, he got near Castiel’s face. Cas was breathing hard, shuddering.</p>
<p>“Cas, you stupid son of a bitch!” Dean cried.</p>
<p>“Cas, don’t do this!”</p>
<p>God waved his hand back to them, saying, “Shut up.”</p>
<p>Castiel had expected some form of power to steal their voices, sew their lips shut, take their tongues.</p>
<p>But it’d just been a demand, not a twisting of the way of the universe, not a new reality.</p>
<p>“<em>Castiel!</em>” Dean screamed.</p>
<p>Sam was growling and snarling.</p>
<p>God let Castiel get to his knees, but he restrained him with his hands behind his back. Castiel sniffled as he looked over his injured friends, as he himself bled and hurt. But no physical injury could ever hurt as much as their deaths. He’d let his Grace be cut from him over and over again rather than have them die.</p>
<p>And he’d already felt that pain. With Jack.</p>
<p>The only hope now was to save what was left of his family.</p>
<p>Sam and Dean were allowed to get up, too injured to do much at all. They tried making their way over to him, but they collapsed, holding each other up on elbows or hands.</p>
<p>Dean stared, mouth open. Sam was the same.</p>
<p>“Please,” Dean said.</p>
<p>“You don’t have to do this,” Sam told him. “Not this. Not for us, man.”</p>
<p>“I do. You’re <em>everything</em> to me. So I have to give you everything. Chuck, take me. Take my life. And spare theirs. Your story will end. It’ll be over.”</p>
<p>God smiled, eyes filled with a surety that had Cas’ heart clawing and scraping its way up his throat, while his stomach dropped out to the ground.</p>
<p>Chuck grabbed him by the back of the head. Sam and Dean were still begging, screaming.</p>
<p>“Oh, Cas. What you don’t understand is that it’s already over.”</p>
<p>Before Castiel knew what was happening, an angel blade was plunged into his gut. God drew him close. Sam and Dean were in hysterics, Dean actually getting up, and heading towards God on his injured foot. The blade dug deep. Castiel didn’t even feel the pain. Just saw the looks on Sam and Dean’s faces.</p>
<p>“And you get to die knowing I’m going to kill them anyway.”</p>
<p>The blade was pulled free, and Castiel began to fall.</p>
<p>“<em>NO!</em>”</p>
<p>Sam was sobbing, hard, Dean collapsed by Cas, grabbing his head as Cas fell, just before it hit the ground.</p>
<p>Castiel never felt the touch of his hand. Never saw that Dean was with him.</p>
<p>It was over.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>
  <em>For the living know that they shall die,</em>
  <br/>
  <em>But the dead know nothing at all:</em>
  <br/>
  <em>Neither have them anymore a reward:</em>
  <br/>
  <em>For their remembrance is forgotten</em>
</p>
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